Please, Fix Us
by urbasic
Summary: Nothing has been the same since Toby started working as a police officer, and Spencer knows it. With more stress on their relationship, everything seems to be falling apart. And when a new guy comes to town and immediately falls for Spencer, both of them need to realize their mistakes before everything crashes. (POST 5x15)
1. Firestone

Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 1: FIRESTONE

* * *

I'm_ a flame  
Shot of fire  
I'm in the dark in need of light  
And we touch, you inspire  
Will it change in me tonight  
So take me up, take me higher  
There's a world not far from here  
We can die, in desire  
Or we can burn in love tonight_

FIRESTONE BY KYGO

* * *

"You once told me that I could tell you anything," she breathed, tears threatening to fall from her eyes, barely allowing herself to look up at him. They'd been through so much together, it was strange to look at him in this way. She almost felt afraid when he grabbed her hands so harshly. She had never been afraid of him, or hurt by him like that. He was always the one to tell her that she could say anything to him, and that he would always be there for her, and that he would never hurt her. She felt betrayed. She thought he meant it when he said those things to her.

"I've gotta go," he mumbled, turning away, and then walking away.

Just like that, he was gone. Whisked away by the wind, and Spencer couldn't do a thing about it. That damn knife did this. She had never seen him so angry before. They had obviously been in fights before, but this time, it was different. The way he acted made her rethink everything. It was like he wasn't the person she thought he was. Of course it wasn't as severe as this, but it sort of resembled the way she felt when she thought he was A. It was a shrunk down pit of emotions that made her feel like she forgot who he really was.

* * *

**A WEEK EARLIER**

Spencer opened the door with a smile on her face when she saw Toby standing there. She immediately pulled him in for a greeting kiss, and then hugged him. Things were good between them, and they had been for quite some time. His broken leg had finally healed, and she was happy to see him walking again. In a couple days, he would begin his work as a policeman. But Spencer thought it was all good with that. Before his graduation from the academy, they had a sexy role play of it, which gave her the idea that this uniform _could_ be quite the turn-on.

"Hello, future officer," she laughed, ruffing her hand through the mini-fauxhawk created by the gel in his hair. "I'm so happy to see your leg... and you walking again... and just... _you_."

He put his arm around her, shutting the door behind him, before saying, "Yeah, it's still a little bit sore, but I should be getting to work at the Rosewood PD soon. Apparently, Holbrook is going to be absent for a bit, so Lieutenant Tanner was willing to let me take up her partner's position, which is amazing. She knows I'm a rookie, but wants to see what I can do on the case. And that case involves you."

She hugged him so tight and told him, "This is exactly what I need... what we all need. A good guy on the inside. This is amazing, Toby."

"I know. Maybe for once, we can get the answers we all have been dying for," he said, nodding his head. "This might be the way to end the game. To find out what happened to Mona, Bethany, and possibly end A's game. Also, to set you free."

She pecked his lips and said, "You don't know how much I _don't_ miss you being a cripple. It's like a lost my boyfriend to a wheelchair."

"Well, you have me now," he laughed, and kissed her again, and then took his jacket off, setting it on the couch. "Are your parents home?"

"No. My parents are still avoiding each other at home. They say that they have work all the time, and only come home when the other is busy, but I know what's going on. And Melissa... well, my sister's been MIA ever since the video, and I still have no clue where she is, and what to do with that information," Spencer explained, sighing.

"Hey, it's okay," Toby coaxed. "We are going to get you out of this, no matter what. You're not guilty, and that's all that matters."

"I don't want to think about my screwed up family right now," she frowned. "Wait, why does it matter if my parents are home, anyways?"

"Well, I didn't think they'd like it if we made up for lost time," he flirted, leaning down and kissing her, placing his hands on her waist.

"They wouldn't. But they're not here to find out," she laughed, unbuttoning the first button of Toby's shirt.

He pressed his nose against hers, took both of her hands in his, before quietly whispering, "I love you, Spencer."

"I love you, too," she said, feeling her heart beating faster and faster. "Do you want to come upstairs with me?"

He smiled at her and said, "Let me take you."

She gave him a confused look for a moment, but then Toby grinned at her and picked her up. Her legs wrapped around Toby's waist, and their lips met. Their foreheads touched as Toby led them up the stairs, and into Spencer's bedroom. He placed her down on the bed gently, pulling his own shirt over his head. He walked over, shut the door, and then climbed on top of her. He kissed down her neck, every hot breath making his heart race. He was happy, and in love. She felt exactly the same way.

* * *

It had been three days since Toby started working at the Rosewood Police Department. Spencer had barely spoken to him. They weren't in a fight or anything... yet. There was just no time. He was always working, and she was at school in the mornings. Their schedules weren't fitting together. He barely had a free second on his hands, anyways, so there was really no time that she could make herself available to him, because he was never available to her.

"Have you talked to Toby since he started working at the police department?" Emily asked.

She shook her head and replied, "No. He texted a few times, but we haven't really spoken much. He's been super busy."

"Maybe you should call," Emily advised. "Let him think about you. Make some romantic plans. Dinner, candles, and just you two."

She smiled and said, "Thanks, Emily. I really want to spend time with him again."

"Then all you have to do is call and make it happen," Emily told her with a smile before walking away.

She called. He picked up.

"Hey, Spencer. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. I was wondering if you wanted to go out for dinner tonight. We need some alone time."

"We do, but I can't. I'm sorry. Tanner's making us work late."

"Oh... I understand."

"Yeah, I'm so sorry, Spence. Maybe some other time."

"No, no, no, it's fine. I understand, you have to work. I don't want to ruin your job."

"Thank you for being so understanding. I have to go now, though. I need to work. Love you."

"I love you, too. Be safe at work."

"I will. Have a good day at school."

She hung up the phone. He made it seem like she wasn't losing him, but she knew he was. Compared to their heated night before he became a police officer, she knew she was losing him. They didn't have time for steamy nights anymore. He was always too busy. In his first three days, he barely had a moment to talk to her on the phone, and their plans couldn't happen because he was working. Things were changing, and she knew it. She missed life before this.

* * *

**PRESENT TIME**

Spencer watched as Toby walked away from her. He never had time for her, and when he did today, it was the worst. He was different.


	2. Come a Little Closer

Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 2: Come a Little Closer

* * *

_Come a little closer, then you'll see  
__Come on, come on, come on  
__Things aren't always what they seem to be  
__Come on, come on, come on  
__Do you understand the things that you would see here  
__Come on, come on, come on  
__Do you understand the things that you've been dreaming  
__Come a little closer, then you'll see_

COME A LITTLE CLOSER BY CAGE THE ELEPHANT

* * *

Spencer was staring at her wall, thinking. It had been over 12 hours since the fight, and she was still thinking about it. She was wondering if he was thinking about it, too. He tried to leave as if he was the good guy, but she knew they were both at fault for what happened. She swallowed hard. There was a knock at the door, and her heart started beating fast, but not in the good way that used to happen when they kissed so hard. It was the heart racing of fear that whatever they had was broken, and whatever he was going to say would make it worse.

She believed it was him. She wanted it to be him, even though she was afraid of what he was going to say. She didn't want to fight anymore, or be told what to do, or especially hear him break up with her. Not after all this time.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, and made her way downstairs to open the door. When she opened it, she was started to see her _mother_, followed by the guy she met at Ezra's remake of the Brew celebration. She raised her eyebrows, a big bit disappointed that it wasn't Toby, but she was also a bit relieved that she wouldn't have to hear his yelling and scolding right now. She sighed.

"Hey, mom..." she greeted quietly. "I can't believe you're actually here... at home."

"Hello, Spencer. I just wanted to run by and let you meet this young man. He'll be moving into the barn. We're renting it out to him," Veronica explained, and let the guy walk inside of the house.

"Oh, hey, _you_!" he exclaimed. "We met at Ezra's last night. You were the girl in a rush."

"So, you two have already met?" Veronica asked. "I hope my daughter didn't scare you-"

"No, she didn't. Well, she was scary, but she's not driving me away," he laughed. "Thank you for bringing me here, Veronica."

"Any time. Make yourself at home in the barn. I should probably get back to work. Spencer, if he needs anything, please help him find it," Veronica told her.

"Okay. I will, mom," Spencer nodded.

She shut the door when Veronica left, and turned to the new guy.

"If you've already forgotten since you were in such a rush, I'm Jonny Raymond. I work for Ezra. I'm into creative stuff, mostly a painter," he explained. "You're obviously Veronica's daughter Spencer. Where's the older one, Melissa?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know where your own sister is?" Jonny laughed. "Is she some crazy party girl that's always out?"

"Something like that," she lied, but he didn't even know the half of it.

"Why were you in such a rush last night?" Jonny asked.

"I was trying to find my boyfriend," she explained. "We needed to talk."

"Rough. Was it a break up?" Jonny asked.

"No... just a fight. We didn't break up," she said. "Why are you asking all these questions?"

"I'm trying to make some conversation, but it honestly feels like I'm trying way harder than you are," Jonny told her, laughing. "I'm sorry for any uncomfortable questions about your personal life. I'm usually not one to pry on details, but I wanted to become friendly with you. I now know that what I said wasn't really the way to go." He paused for a moment, but then looked up at her, and she was wiping a tear from her eyes. "Hey... are you okay? I didn't mean to make you cry."

"It has nothing to do with what you said, I'm sorry," she told him.

She just walked away, leaving Jonny there.

* * *

"Is Mona sending these texts?"

"No. I don't think dead corpses send texts, Caleb."

"Spencer, we have to do something about this."

"I don't want to get into deeper turmoil with Toby already... we're still rocky from the knife."

"You can't just not investigate this because your boyfriend doesn't want you to."

"He's not just some boyfriend. I don't want things to end, and I know he's getting frustrated with me."

"We can't give up just yet. Not so soon. He's not trying as hard as we thought he would to try and solve everything. We have to do something about it. We have to take matters into our own hands and solve this damn thing."

"He can't be some double agent to the Rosewood PD. He could get in so much trouble for that. He snoops for us when he can, but he owes a certain loyalty for his job. We have to understand where he's coming from. He can't break the rules just like that."

"I know. So, we don't have to tell him."

"Keeping secrets is exactly what has caused us to fight _every_ time we've ever fought."

"Keep it now, tell him later when we find information. He can't be mad at you for getting answers that end the game."

"You're right. We need to end this game. Does Hanna know that we're doing this?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to tell her every detail I can. She doesn't stop me from finding answers like Toby is doing. He's the closest friend I have, but he's bitching right now. I think he needs to stop."

"I'm not here to bash Toby. He's still my boyfriend."

"Alright, whatever. I'll meet you in an hour, Spencer."

"Later, Caleb. Be ready."

"I will."

* * *

Spencer sighed. She knew Toby would never approve if he knew where she was, and what she was doing. But she had to do it. She was outside of Caleb's apartment. Knocking on the door, she checked to see if Toby called, but he didn't. She knew he was too busy to spend time with her, anyways. The only time he had to talk was for conversation about his police work, or to yell at her.

"Hey," Caleb greeted, letting her inside. "I've been working on decrypting the text, and its location, all morning. I think I finally have got some information. We have a lead."

"A lead is the perfect start," Spencer said with a smile. "Is Hanna here?"

"I'm here," Hanna said, walking from the kitchen. "I have a dinner with my mom and Ted soon, so I can't come for your hunting time, but I'm here for now. I'll head off when you guys are ready to go do your detective work. Text me if you find anything."

"Of course. And when should we clue the other girls in?" Spencer asked.

"Soon. And Toby?" Caleb asked.

"I'd rather not worry about him until we get something real," she responded. "I don't want to escalate our fight anymore. He can't know about this until I have something to prove to him that the searching was worth it, and got us something good enough to truly help."

"That's totally fine. So, all three of us have to keep our mouths shut about this when we're near Toby," Caleb said.

"Look, I rarely spend one-on-one time with Toby, so you don't even need to worry about me," Hanna said, shrugging her shoulders. "You're his girlfriend, and you're his best friend. I'm just his girlfriend's friend."

"Hanna, it doesn't matter what relation you have to him. If you run into him somewhere, or even when you're with him as a group, just don't mention a thing about this, and don't crack," Caleb explained.

"We don't have time to discuss this right now. What's your lead on the text? Where do we start?" Spencer asked.

"There's an address. We just have to drive down to the address I printed out, and scan out the place, see what we can find," Caleb told her.

"Then let's get to it," Spencer said, picking up her bag.

"I'll call you," Caleb said, and kissed Hanna's lips before walking out the door with Spencer. "Lock up when you're ready to go."

* * *

When they got there, it was some sort of storage room. But Mona's laptop was there, and they both thought it could lead to her body. That's why they brought gloves and everything... to make sure no fingerprints were left anywhere.

"And what if this is a trap?" Spencer asked.

"Well, we'll just have to take a risk and see," Caleb replied, and got out of the car.

Putting their gloves on, they started to look through all the junk.

"I think I found Mona's laptop!" Caleb exclaimed, picking up the computer from the floor. "We can head back and decrypt this."

"Do you think her body could be in here?" Spencer asked.

"I think it could. But we don't have to keep looking," Caleb told her. "The police would never believe that we just happened to run into Mona Vanderwaal's dead corpse in a random storage room, far away from our homes. It wouldn't add up to them, and we'd end up looking guiltier than we already do."

"We have gloves. Just... maybe we could just look around for one more second," Spencer said.

"Spencer, are you sure?" Caleb asked. "Are you sure you want to see her dead body, if it's in here?"

"Trust me, it won't be the worst thing I've ever seen," Spencer quietly said.

"Get down!" Caleb whisper-yelled, grabbing her arm, and yanking her downwards.

"What the hell?" Spencer asked.

"There's somebody else in here," Caleb said, pointing to the hooded shadow in the reflection of the door.

"We should have known that this was a trap. -A knew we were going to be here," Spencer whispered.

"I thought Alison was supposed to be -A," Caleb reminded.

"Somebody's working with her. It's obvious. She can't do all of this on her own. We've always thought that -A wasn't alone... and that there was some kind of team. And that has to be the case. It just has to be," Spencer said.

"We need to be quiet. -A can't know we're here," Caleb said.

"Caleb, I'm damn sure -A already knows exactly where we are, and what we're doing," Spencer told him.

"Spencer... don't," he tried, but she got up.

She got up from ducking down on the floor, and picked up a golf club that was laying down, just in case she needed it. With -A, she couldn't imagine why she _wouldn't_ need it. She slowly twisted the doorknob. Caleb watched with worry on his face. He wanted to stop her, but what could he say? -A already knew that they were in the storage room. If -A wanted to hurt them, he or she was going to do it.

"Spencer, don't!" he repeated.

"I'm doing this," she said, and pulled the door open.

Before she could swing the golf club to hit -A, the figure took the glass shard in their hand, and swung it right at her arm, scratching her. Spencer dropped the golf club. Caleb grabbed whatever he could, and started sprinting up to -A, but before he could do anything, -A had grabbed the laptop and ran away. They lost everything they came for, and Spencer got hurt. It was useless.

"Spencer!" Caleb cried, trying to help her up.

"I'm okay. It's just a small scratch," she breathed.

"It's a huge scratch!" Caleb yelled. "We need to get out of here, and bandage that up. If you're going to spend time with Toby, just... wear a long-sleeved shirt. He can't know that you got hurt. He'll be so pissed off if we tell him about this. Plus, -A took the laptop. We lost everything."

"We'll come back again," Spencer told him.

"I'll tell Hanna to pick up some gauze and bandages, and then come back to my place. Let's go," Caleb said, and helped her into the car outside.

* * *

"What happened?" Hanna asked, as she and Caleb started to bandage up Spencer's giant wound, created by the glass shard.

"We went there, we found Mona's laptop, and then the -A figure was there. I tried to make us hide, but I'm sure that -A knew we were already in there. It was probably a set-up," Caleb explained. "Spencer want to attack the figure with a golf club, but as usual, -A won. He swung with his glass shard, cut Spencer, took Mona's laptop, and then ran away."

"Damn it..." Hanna muttered. "How is she going to explain this to Toby?"

"I'm not," Spencer said. "He doesn't need to know about it. We're not having any sexy time right now. He's working all the time, so it's not like I'm going to be stripping my shirt off for him any time soon."

"Alright, so just keep it hidden with long sweaters and jackets," Hanna said, nodding her head. "Hiding it from him shouldn't be all bad. The only problem is, Mona's laptop is in -A's possession."

"That trip feels useless now," Caleb muttered.

"It's not your fault. No one ever wins against -A, anyways," Hanna coaxed.

"Shouldn't you be going to meet with Ted and your mom by now?" Spencer asked.

"You're right," Hanna nodded. "Spencer, I don't think you should drive with that arm. Let me drive you back."

"Thanks, Han," Spencer said, nodding her head. "And thank you for coming with me today, Caleb."

"Of course," Caleb said, smiling. "I'm just glad you're okay, Spencer."

"We should go now," Hanna said.

"Alright. Drive safe. I love you," Caleb told her, and pecked her lips.

"Love you, too," Hanna said with a smile.

* * *

Spencer and Hanna headed to Spencer's house before Hanna's dinner.

"Let me walk you back inside," Hanna told her, and then got out of the car. The two girls headed into Spencer's large home. "I'll make you a coffee before I go. Take some rest, and don't stress your arm out too much, okay?"

"I'll try," Spencer said.

"Spencer?"

Jonny came walking inside with a smile and said, "Hey! Who's your pretty friend?"

"Um... this is Hanna," Spencer introduced. "Hanna, this is Jonny Raymond. My mom's renting the barn out to him right now."

"Hi... Jonny," Hanna mumbled.

"What have you been up to? And what's with the giant bandage?" Jonny asked.

"Nothing. What are you doing in here? I thought you lived in the barn, not my home," Spencer told him, rolling her eyes.

"Your mother said that I could come in here and get food when I need it, so I came for some food," Jonny explained.

"Well, take it, and go back," Spencer said. "I'm going to run upstairs and grab a jacket."

Jonny shrugged his shoulders, took a pre-wrapped sandwich, and headed back to the barn. Spencer came downstairs with a jacket on, and came to see Hanna opening the door to Toby. She seemed shocked.

"Toby..." Hanna mumbled.

"Oh. Hi, Hanna. Is Spencer home?" Toby asked.

"I'm here," Spencer said, walking downstairs.

She walked to the door. He didn't look super happy, but he didn't look as furious as he did the day before. That look was unforgettable, and scared her to death. He didn't look like that anymore. It wasn't some warm and welcoming look, but it was better than what she saw the night they fought.

"I heard from Emily about the texts from Mona's," Toby began. "Why did I hear about it from her instead of you, Spencer?"

"You told me there are things you can't know. I thought this was something that you can't know," Spencer mocked, folding her arms.

"Spencer," he said sternly. "Don't."

"Don't what!? So what if we tried to research about the text. I'm doing what I can to protect myself. I know you say I've got you, but it really doesn't feel that way right now," Spencer snapped, looking away, trying her hardest not to cry again.

"I want this to stop!" Toby yelled. "You need to stop trying to distort evidence and mess with things! When has lying ever helped any of us?" Toby demanded.

"Whatever you say, officer," she said in a sad tone, looking away.

"Spencer," he said calmer than before.

"What do you want me to say to you?" Spencer asked. "Are you my boyfriend or a strict authority figure?"

"You know I have to be both, it's my job," Toby responded.

"Then why does it only feel like you're one of those things?" Spencer said, shaking her head.

He stared at the floor and asked her, "The knife was the last thing you tried to distort, right?"

"Are you serious?" Spencer asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I'm trying to understand what's happening here. You didn't go after the text, right?" Toby asked.

"No," she lied, and got a look from Hanna, but kept looking straight at Toby.

He stepped forward and hugged Spencer before saying, "I'm so sorry... for the way I acted last night. I shouldn't have been so harsh on you. We've both made mistakes, and last night wasn't all your fault. It was mine, too. We both disobeyed each other, and I blamed you. And I was stupid. I'm not just a police officer. I'm on your side, and I should have been showing it."

Her heart melted for a moment, and she hugged him back, even though she felt like a bitch for lying to him again.

"Let me make it up to you for being absent all this time," Toby told her, stroking her brown hair, pulling it against his nose, and smelling the sweet scent of it. He had missed hugging her so close against his body. It felt like it had been forever since they hugged like this. "I'll tell them I need to take a personal day today, because I do. I need to be with you right now. Just you. I should have made time for you a long time ago."

Hanna was warmed by the words he was saying to Spencer, but she still couldn't wrap her head around why Spencer lied to him again. She sighed, getting ready to walk away.

"I should leave for my dinner with Pastor Ted and my mom," Hanna announced. "I hope you guys have a good day."

Spencer waved at Hanna as the blonde left, and then turned back to her boyfriend.

"So, this personal day, huh?" Spencer smiled.

"That's right," Toby nodded. "I would want to go out, but I don't want to be near anybody else right now. I just want to be near you."

"Do you have anything particular in mind?" Spencer asked.

He grinned, took her hand, and led her up to her bedroom.

* * *

To play Scrabble, of course!

"Are you actually winning!?" Spencer cried. "It's been over a year, and you're _still_ beating me?"

"You don't have to graduate high school to be this smart," Toby joked, setting down another word on the board, getting him another large mass of points to add to his score. "Top that."

"But I'm here with the hottest guy in Rosewood, so who's the real winner?" Spencer flirted, leaning her face towards him so that they were inches apart.

"I didn't know I was the hottest guy in Rosewood," he laughed. "Is this some kind of strategy to distract me?"

"Nope, no strategy," she told him, straddling him and then kissing his lips. It was the first time they had kissed since he started working as a cop. It felt good. She missed his lips. "What would the strategy be in this?"

"To be all sexy like that and make me lose my focus," he whispered into her ear, his hand running down her back. She started kissing his neck, and he really was losing his focus in the Scrabble game. "Okay, now I know you're trying to distract me."

"There's no reason for distractions," she said, turned around, and pushed the game board to the floor, letting all the pieces fall off, too. "Oops! Guess we'll _never_ know who won that game, huh!? Such a shame..."

"Funny," he said, shaking his head with a grin. "We all know I was going to win that, for sure."

"Who would ever know?" Spencer asked. "We didn't finish the game! Accidents happen."

"Alright. I'll reset it. We can have a rematch," he said, about to get up to pick the game board up.

"Hey!" she laughed, pulling him back to her. "Come on, I didn't do that just because I didn't want you to win. That was certainly a part of it, but I wanted to end the game. I never said I want to restart it right now. I thought we could spend the night in a better way."

He smiled, cupping her cheeks, before saying, "You don't know how happy I am to be here with you. I should have appreciated you more. I forgot how much you mean to me for a second. But now I see it again. You're worth too much to me to let a silly knife get in the way. It was a one time thing."

"Yeah," Spencer nervously agreed. She tried to end the topic by kissing him passionately, and unbuttoning the first button of his shirt.

He kissed her neck, and started to reach his hands to the hem of his shirt. He began to pull her sweater over her head, his eyes closed. His lips moved down from her neck, and started to kiss lower and lower. His hands moved to the clasp of her bra, and he was about to unhook it. He pushed her over on the bed, hovering on top of her as he kept kissing. Suddenly, she winced in pain.

"Whoa. Did I do something wrong?" Toby asked. "Are you okay?"

Spencer realized how badly she screwed up. Toby scanned her body for a moment, and noticed the bandage.

"Spencer. What's this?" he asked.

"There's a new guy... Jonny... and I was making food for him for lunch. I was cutting vegetables, we were talking, and I wasn't paying attention. I just accidentally cut myself. Just... just watch my arm when we do this," Spencer lied. She knew he was in disbelief, but she kissed him again, hopefully making him forget about it, and not overthink it.

They were in the middle of a passionate session of making out on her bed, and Spencer kept unbuttoning more buttons on his shirt. Just then, Toby's phone buzzed. He sighed, and started to turn back to get his phone.

"Mmm, can't it wait?" Spencer begged.

"If it's the police station, I need to make sure I'm not missing an emergency," Toby explained. He reached over to the counter and grabbed his phone. He stared there, in shock.

"What happened? Do you have to leave early?" Spencer asked.

"No. I got a text from A..." Toby muttered. "I thought the texts would stop with Alison in prison, but this just won't end!"

"What does it say?" Spencer asked.

_Your girlfriend's a pretty little liar. Come a little closer and see what she's been doing behind your back. Once a liar, always a liar!  
Kisses, -A_

There was an image attached to the text. He was scared to open it, but he did, anyways. When he opened it, there was a large image of Caleb and Spencer in a storage room, ducking down on the floor, Mona's laptop clearly in hand. He gritted his teeth, and started to button his shirt again.

"What?" Spencer asked. "Toby!"

"I can't believe you lied to me _again_," Toby snapped. "I asked you one simple question, and you told me that you didn't investigate Mona's text! You lied to me, just like you did yesterday."

"I didn't want you to be mad at me!" Spencer cried.

"Well, look where we are now. I'm even more pissed off. I wouldn't have been this angry if you just told me you already investigated it, but you'll stop going behind my back from then on. But you lied to me, and that hurts," Toby angrily said.

"Toby..." she muttered.

"What did you and Caleb find?" Toby demanded.

"We found the laptop, but -A stole it," Spencer explained.

"And the wound on your hand isn't from cutting vegetables for this Jonny guy, is it?" Toby asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No, but he's a real person, I didn't make that up," she justified.

"That doesn't matter to me. I don't care if Jonny is a real person," he told her. "You told me another lie."

"Where are you going?" Spencer asked, when he started to get his stuff.

"I'm not in the mood for this damn romantic night anymore," he said, gritting his teeth. "I'm damn mad. So damn mad. At both of you. More you, because Caleb didn't tell me any lies this time. But you did."

"I knew what you would say if I told you about it!" Spencer cried. "I need to find answers for myself. This is ruining my life, and I want to put a stop to it."

"You did nothing. This accomplished nothing. But you lied to me, and you got hurt in the process!" Toby yelled.

She swallowed hard. She knew there was nothing she could say to cool him off. When he got mad, it was always crazy mad. Nobody could calm him down when he was determined about something. He finished getting the rest of his belongings, and left the room, and the house, without another word to her. She sat on her bed, sniffling. There was a quiet knock at her door, and a part of her thought that maybe Toby came back, but she knew he was too pissed to be that calm. And it was no surprise when Jonny was there instead of Toby.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Jonny asked.

She nodded her head.

"I heard you guys fighting when I went downstairs to get myself dinner," Jonny said, scratching his head. "Are you okay?"

"No!" she cried. "I don't know how to fix this with him."

"Sometimes, when things aren't working out, you just have to let things go," Jonny explained.

"Well, I can't give up with him. I love him," she said, sniffling.

"Then don't let him go. But don't try so hard to fix things. If it's meant to happen, it'll play out a certain way. The world knows the way everything is gonna work out, and if your fight is gonna work out, it'll happen by itself," Jonny said wisely.

She raised her eyebrows and asked, "Why are you here?"

"I was trying to be a decent guy, hopefully I didn't fail," Jonny laughed.

"You didn't," Spencer said with a smile. "I don't know you all that well, but you sure are decent, at the least."

"Well, maybe we're friendly enough for me to say, you don't have to spend the night moping about your fight with him. I wouldn't want that, for you, or myself," Jonny told her. "So, I've been working on some paintings. In the barn, of course. But maybe you'd wanna come down there and check it out. You could give me your thoughts. It could be fun, if you would give it a chance."

"Anything would beat sitting here alone, so yeah, I would love to," Spencer agreed, with a smile.

She got up, and followed Jonny down to the barn.


	3. Warm

Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 3: Warm

* * *

_I'm never satisfied.  
It's never good enough.  
I always seem to find the right formula for putting up  
I tried to love you, baby  
In every way, in every way  
I tried to satisfy you honey,  
But you wouldn't stay, you wouldn't stay_

WARM BY THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, FT. RAURY

* * *

"So, I spent all that time abroad in Italy, and I learned a lot. Italy's like the center of art, so it's a dream come true for any aspiring artist. It was well-worth the time and the money. I had the time of my life," Jonny explained, sipping his soda at the Hastings breakfast bar.

"It must suck to be back in Rosewood after spending time in some place so fascinating," Spencer commented, clearly fascinated by his travels herself. "This travel log of your time in Italy was worth an egg. I'm glad you got your paint color materials, and I got my travel log."

"Well, if you ever want to hear more, I'm always around to tell," Jonny said with a smile. "And it is a big difference. Italy to Rosewood... but this is my home. It's where I've lived all my life, and I want to stay here, while Italy was fun. I need to find my own place, and start my own life and career. Even though staying here is quite the treat, I can't live in your family's barn forever."

"Why not?" Spencer laughed. "No one's ever home, it's not like it's occupied. Besides, it's fun having you here. There's actually someone to talk to."

"This house must be lonely," Jonny agreed. "It _does_ seem like no one is ever around. How do you manage?"

"I've lived here all my life, I'm used to it," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "It wasn't always like this, anyways. My parents avoid each other now, they have some dilemma going on, and I guess they don't want to deal with it, so they just keep running away from each other, as silly as it is. But it's not that bad. I usually spend some nights with Toby when I want to. My parents probably wouldn't like that, but they don't notice since they're not here to notice it."

"You can't go to Toby now, can you?" Jonny asked, glancing over at her to see her reaction.

"For now, no. We're on thin ice, and I don't want this getting worse than it already is," Spencer replied, sighing. "Do you want more soda?"

"Sure," Jonny said, nodding his head, and Spencer got up to refill his soda glass.

* * *

"Ted proposed to my mom last night."

Jason looked up, clearly confused by the words he was hearing, "Your mom's pastor boyfriend?"

"You knew about him, but you did this," Hanna snapped.

"Hanna, I didn't mean to cause this kind of damage. It didn't mean anything. I was... I was being crazy. With Alison gone, I feel lonely. And I turned to your mom, and then it just happened," Jason tried to explain. "I'm glad your mom and her boyfriend are okay. I didn't want to start anything."

"Too late, you did!" Hanna yelled. "My mom didn't respond to Ted because of you. I liked Ted, I wanted her to marry him, but this guilt is making her overthink it, and she doesn't know if she can marry Ted with this secret!"

"You're acting as if I raped her, Hanna, but it was consensual!" Jason defended.

"Please, don't _ever_ talk about having consensual sex with my mom again," Hanna said, shaking her head in disgust.

"I'll talk to her," Jason said, nodding his head. "I don't want this to affect anything. Your mom deserves to marry him. I don't know much about Ted, but I can tell that he's a good guy that can take care of her. I'm not. I'm the kind of guy who hooks up with and kisses girls before running away because I'm afraid. I did it to Aria, and now I did it to your-"

"_Aria_?" Hanna asked. "You hooked up with Aria?"

"I thought you knew, but I guess not. It was a while back. Over a year ago," Jason said, shaking his head.

"You're acting like a monster right now," Hanna snapped. "My mom won't even talk to me about this!"

"She doesn't have to talk to you about it. You're lucky that I'm gonna deal with this," Jason told her. "I'm going to go talk to her, I promise, Hanna. Please, just don't worry about it."

* * *

While Spencer and Jonny were in the middle of a great conversation about more of his Italian travels, there was a knock on the door. She gave him a small smile, and left him there to drink his soda. She got up with a sigh, and opened the door. She swallowed hard and opened her eyes wide when she saw Toby standing there. She didn't think he was coming over any time soon after their big fight. Her plan was to just wait for the dust to settle back. He usually didn't hold a grudge about their fights, and calmed down after a while. But then again, this fight was pretty different from the ones they had before.

"Toby... what are you doing here?" she asked, biting her lip.

"Did you go to the storage room last night with Caleb?" Toby demanded.

"We talked about this last night. You know I did," Spencer responded.

"Did Hanna come with you?" Toby asked, folding his arms.

"No, she didn't," Spencer responded. "Why?"

"Are you being completely honest with me right now?" he asked.

"Yes, I am! I have nothing to lie about when you know the complete truth. What does any of this have to do with Hanna?" Spencer asked.

"I'm on lunch break right now, so I have to get back to work soon, but I overheard Lieutenant Tanner having a conversation on the phone. They found fingerprints that match Hanna's in the storage room. Somebody tipped the police off to go investigate that scene, so if your fingerprints, or Caleb's, are there, one of you, or maybe both of you, are going to go down, hard. Hanna's in a lot of crap right now. Tanner wants to arrest her."

"Arrest Hanna!? She wasn't even with us. She went to a dinner with Ted, how could she have even been there!?" Spencer cried. "This isn't possible. And I don't think Caleb and I are going down. We were careful, and we wore gloves."

"I told you to stop the day the knife was found, and you two kept hunting behind my back!" Toby yelled. "Do you see what keeps happening every time? Something goes wrong. And this isn't like the time you were able to get out on bail and save your ass, because this time, someone is trying real hard to get our asses busted, and you and Caleb are making it so damn easy for A to do this!"

"Toby, we can't talk about this right now," she said in a hushed voice.

"Why not? When are we going to have time to talk about this besides now? It's all I've got," he said.

"My friend is here," Spencer said. "Jonny, you don't have to pretend like you're not here."

"Damn, that was scaring me, and it was intense!" Jonny exclaimed, laughing. He stopped ducking behind the kitchen counter, and walked over to join them. "Hey, man. I'm a painter, I work at Ezra's, and my name is Jonny Raymond. You must be the boyfriend who made her cry. How are you doing?"

Toby stared at the floor as Spencer gave Jonny a look.

"Thanks for your concern, but these problems have nothing to do with you, and there's a lot going on that you just don't understand. And you never will understand it," Toby snapped, glaring at him.

"Jonny, this is Toby," Spencer introduced, stopping him from his angry words.

"Nice to meet you, Toby," Jonny said with a smile. "Sorry about the invasion of your privacy, I didn't know that it was such a touchy subject-"

"You don't have to apologize," Spencer told him.

Toby looked back up and said, "I have to get back to work. Will you please just stay out of trouble today? And please, don't go out on some kind of insane mission with Caleb today. With this Hanna thing, there's enough to deal with."

"Yes, officer," she sarcastically said, folding her arms and sighing.

"What are you guys up to?" Toby asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, I'm enchanting her with my great stories of Italy, and teaching her about some of the greatest parts of art!" Jonny exclaimed with a grin. "She's crazy about Italy, you know? Maybe she doesn't need college. Italy is better than college. I would know! I've done both."

Spencer laughed so hard and said, "Hmm, maybe we can discuss how I'm going to give up college for Italian art instead, huh?"

Toby looked away and announced, "Okay, well I'll get back to work. Call me if you need anything."

He felt like he needed to prove a point to Jonny, so he leaned over and kissed the top of Spencer's head before turning away and going to his truck.

"Your boyfriend... he's something," Jonny laughed.

"He's not some tight-ass, okay? He's right, there is a lot behind this. It's not some big, large, it's all his fault sort of fight. It's turmoil," Spencer tried to explain. "And honestly, he's right, you're never going to understand what we've been through. This fight is more than meets the eye. You can't understand or solve it by hearing one conversation. He's not a jerk, either."

"Didn't seem that way when we talked," Jonny told her.

"Well, that's because you came off as a bit arrogant," Spencer laughed. "He gets mad when he feels threatened."

"I'm a threat?" Jonny asked, grinning. "Cool."

"He's not a bad guy, trust me. If you got to know him like I do, you would know that he's a really sweet, loving guy," Spencer tried to explain.

"I'll keep that in mind, but all he seems like is a big ol' bitch right now," Jonny joked.

"Let's not talk about him anymore. Let's talk about Italy and art," Spencer said with a smile. "Enchant me like you told him you do."

"Will do," Jonny began, laughing. "Well, one time I saw this statue in a museum, and this old lady came on by and said..."

* * *

"Did you go back there?" Caleb demanded, folding his arms.

"Okay, I did. But why does it matter?" Hanna asked.

"Toby's barely speaking to me, but he just gave me a call. They found your fingerprints at the storage room," Caleb explained. "Hanna, you know I think you're a smart girl, but that was so incredibly damn stupid! Did you wear gloves?"

"No! I didn't think I would find anything, or that A would report the scene to the cops!" Hanna cried.

"What did you think you would find?" Caleb asked.

"A clue from A. Anything A dropped," Hanna said.

"A is too smart to leave behind clues," Caleb told her. "At least real clues, that is. Anything A would have dropped would have been fake as hell, and a big ass set up. What happened to you? You and your friends should know the game of A well by now!"

"I slipped up!" Hanna cried.

"This isn't a small slip up, Hanna!" Caleb snapped. "Do you know what this can do to you? Toby didn't tell me everything, but he told me that Tanner wants to file for an arrest. Your fingerprints at the scene are enough to cause suspicion that you killed Mona."

"Why would that mean I killed Mona?" Hanna asked, confused. "And I'm the one who cared the most about Mona's death. I'm the one who bawled my eyes out for hours. I'm the one that was best friends with Mona for so long!"

"They think Mona's body is in there, Hanna. And if it is, you can say goodbye, because they're taking you down, one step at a time," Caleb told her.

* * *

"Hey!" Ezra exclaimed, pecking Aria's lips quickly. "Are you heading off already?"

"Yeah. Jason wanted to meet up for a bite, if that's okay," Aria said.

"It's fine, I just wanted to know," Ezra said, smiling. "Did Talmidge ever get back to you about the wait list thing? Emily told me you sent a letter there, but she wasn't sure of the outcome, so I wanted to ask. Did that go well?"

"I'm not sure, I haven't heard back from them yet," Aria said. "I'm sure they were unfazed by it. Jackie probably threw my letter in the garbage, you know!"

"Hey, it's okay. Talmidge was a long shot with Jackie working on the board. Apply somewhere where my ex-fiance doesn't work, maybe," Ezra joked, smiling.

Aria fake laughed before saying, "I should get going. I don't want to keep Jason waiting."

"Aria... are you ok?" Ezra asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm fine," she answered.

"If this is about not getting into anything right now, you'll be okay. There is a college out there that wants you, I know it. You're talented, beautiful, and you're going to do so many amazing things in this life. Any college would be lucky to have you, and I know there's some place out there that wants you. You need to keep trying, and not give up, just because a few colleges said no, or wait listed you," Ezra explained. "I know how these things work."

"Thank you, Ezra," Aria said, and kissed his cheek quickly.

"You just seem distant," Ezra told her.

"I'm tired," Aria lied, and walked out the door without another word.

She had been seeing her letter to Jackie everywhere. A had gotten a hold of it, and this bitch was using it against her. A was threatening to tell Ezra all about it, and honestly, Aria was just afraid of what Ezra would say to it. Emily seemed so sure that Ezra would be devastated if he read it, and now, Aria was starting to think the same way. It would break his heart to see a letter full of regret about him.

Just then, Emily came out of the room after working with Talia to prepare a new recipe.

"Is everything going all right in the kitchen, Emily?" Ezra asked. "You're fine with working with Talia now, right?"

"Well, we're getting along better now, so yeah, I am," Emily responded with a smile.

"Did you ever hear back from those scholars that wanted to have a private party here?" Ezra asked, looking up.

"I did!" Emily exclaimed. "They want to rent the place out for a whole night. It's amazing. They're willing to pay major bucks, and with Talia and I working together now, I think the food is going to be pretty darn good."

"I'm glad you're feeling more confident about your cooking now," Ezra laughed.

"I emailed you the guest list and all the information for the night," Emily told him. "It has how many people, what food they want, and what sort of music they want. Also, the time, date, and all that good stuff."

"Amazing! Thank you, Emily. Hold on for a second. Let me just make sure I got this email," Ezra said, getting out his cell phone.

He opened his mail application, and found Emily's email.

"Perfect!" Ezra exclaimed. "Emily, this is truly great. You've been working your ass off..."

He suddenly stared down, and Emily asked, "What's wrong?"

"I got a blocked email," Ezra said, furrowing his eyebrows. He opened it. "It looks like it was originally for Talmidge."

Emily's eyes widened and she asked, "Do you really want to read that?"

"I just did," Ezra mumbled, and turned his phone off, before setting it down on the counter. "Looks like I'm nothing but a regret to Aria."

Emily swallowed hard. The moment Aria sent that letter to Talmidge and Jackie, Emily knew crap was going down. Of course, A got a hold of the letter, and now Ezra got a hold of it, too. It was just the perfect mess.


	4. Pools

Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 4: Pools

* * *

_Shake my little soul for you now, toy  
And I settle up into a world of noise  
I'm a man of many tricks and tools and joy  
With a battery of guilt on which to poise_

POOLS BY GLASS ANIMALS

* * *

Toby shook his head and said, "This can't be true. How can Hanna be Mona's killer if Alison is?"

Linda Tanner gave him a half smile before saying, "That's the thing. I'm starting to think Alison isn't as guilty of this as she seems. I'm sure she's guilty of something, but a little thing called _intuition _is telling me that she's not responsible for Mona's death. And that's why I'm not going to stop until I have the full truth. That's my job. To find out the truth."

"Don't you think it's a bit far-fetched?" Toby asked. "Hanna killing Mona... they were best friends, and if anyone loved her, it was Hanna."

Tanner raised her eyebrows and told him, "You're awfully defensive of Hanna, but I'll explain myself anyways-"

"I've known Hanna for years. I went to school with her. She's one of my girlfriend's best friends. You could say we're friends, and that let me get to know her at least a bit, because I don't think she's capable of murder," Toby cut her off.

"Officer Cavanaugh, you never know what people are really capable of. Some people have a different side, and knowing her isn't enough to determine she's not a killer," Tanner said. "There's already a bit of evidence against her. Why would her fingerprints be on a site that is reportedly storing Mona Vanderwaal's dead body, and her bloody clothes? It's got to be Hanna, and we're going to find out the truth."

Toby sighed and asked, "Well, when are we going to get to it?"

"The search party will be ready in about half an hour," Tanner told him. "Get ready, officer. If Mona's body is in there, or _has_ been in there, then we're going to find out. I won't stop under we've uncovered the truth."

* * *

Aria stopped by the Brew to visit Ezra and Emily. When she walked in, she first searched for Ezra, but he wasn't there. She finally found him in the employee's only room, even though she technically wasn't supposed to go in there. She was the owner's girlfriend, so she could, right?

"Hey!" Aria exclaimed, kissing his cheek quickly. "What's up? You didn't text me back last night."

"I had work to do," Ezra told her blankly, shuffling around with papers.

"That's it?" Aria asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "Are you all right, Ezra?"

"I don't know," he responded emotionlessly. "Aria, this is a room for employees of the Brew. You don't work here."

"You want me to leave?" Aria asked, shocked.

"I think that would be best for now, since you don't work here. I don't want customers getting the wrong idea... that they can come in the employee's only room without permission from an employee," Ezra explained, turning away. "Besides, I have more work to do, anyways."

"Did I do something wrong?" Aria asked. "I know you're upset. I can tell."

"Aria, I'm not upset with you. I'm just stressed with all the work I have to deal with. The opening has been killing me, and I have limited employees around here. It's just Emily and Talia, and sometimes Jonny," Ezra told her. "I can't juggle you in the mix right now. So, can we just talk later? I'm too busy to deal with this right now."

"Fine, call me when you take the pole out of your ass," Aria snapped, and turned away.

He was about to apologize like the good guy he was, but he knew he had every right to be mad. She wrote a letter of regret about their relationship! Did he mean nothing to her? He knew they would need to talk about it at some point, but he was just too freaking pissed and stressed out to deal with it, so he was planning on leaving it for now, and getting back to it later. It wasn't the smartest choice, but he didn't feel like talking about it with her.

When Aria went outside, she caught up with Emily.

"Do you know what's wrong with Ezra? Is something wrong with the Brew?" Aria asked. "He's totally stressed about it."

"No, nothing's wrong with him," Emily lied. "So, I've been working with Talia a lot lately, and I think she sort of likes me. I told her I'm gay recently, and she was fine with it, but she didn't get back to me about herself. I don't know if she just doesn't want to, or..."

"Emily, I'm pretty sure she's into you, but stop changing the subject!" Aria cried. "What's wrong with Ezra?"

"Fine... I don't think he would want me to tell you, but -A sent him your letter to Jackie at Talmadge," Emily confessed. "He's devastated, more than angry. He just can't believe that you would say that about your relationship."

"I was desperate to get into at least one college!" Aria cried, defending herself. "I can't believe he knows."

"Personally, Aria, I would be pissed if I was going out with somebody who told a college they regretted dating a gay girl, or something like that, even if they claimed they didn't mean it," Emily told her. "You have to ask yourself, 'was it all a lie?', because I don't think all those feelings came completely from your imagination, just saying. He has every right to be pissed at you. And I don't think telling Talmadge that you regret dating Ezra was the way to go about trying to get into their school."

"I thought that was the only way to break Jackie, and get her to feel my level of emotion!" Aria defended. "I didn't mean what I said. I mean, I guess a part of me wishes that I didn't get involved with a teacher, because it caused so many problems, and he sort of lied to me for years about how we met, and everything, but..."

"Aria," Emily said, raising her eyebrows. "It seems like you know exactly how you feel about this."

* * *

"Yeah, okay. Bye. I'll talk to you soon," Spencer said, hanging up the phone.

It was funny how phone conversations could go from _"I love you" _to _"I'll talk to you soon"_. It felt weird. Honestly, she was pretty used to telling him that she loved him before ending their phone calls. Or at least, some kind of sweeter goodbye. It seemed so tense. It felt that way, too. She knew they were still on thin ice, but she didn't know how to fix it without giving up her search for answers.

"What happened?" Hanna asked, biting her nails nervously.

"The search party is going back to the storage room in a couple of minutes," Spencer responded. "Toby's going with them. They're going to search for clues, Mona's body, or any other evidence. Tanner's focusing on you as the suspect."

"Damn it!" Hanna yelled. "Do we have time to go get that crap out of there?"

"Hanna, I don't think distorting evidence is the way to go right now," Spencer said. "Besides, you know how Toby feels about that. And I think that he's right about it. We can't keep destroying all the evidence. We have to let things go."

"Not when Alison is trying to clear her name by having her minion frame me!" Hanna angrily said. "I swear to god, if this is Holbrook's doing, I'm going to freaking kill him the way they think I murdered Mona!"

"Hey, baby," Caleb said, kissing Hanna quickly. "I was trying to track down the text location, and it's gone now. The storage room isn't the location of the text from Mona anymore. It's blank, and it's gone. I think -A made it seem like the text came from the storage room, knowing that we'd go, and set ourselves up for trouble."

"I'm the only one with my ass on the line!" Hanna cried. "Tanner's trying to take me down, and it's all because of Alison and Holbrook!"

"We don't know it's them for sure," Spencer reminded.

"It has to be," Hanna said. "Who else?"

"We can't ever find out if Toby won't let us do our investigating," Caleb said. "Spencer, did you talk to him?"

"I did, but it was tense. He's still mad at us, I know it," Spencer told him. "I want this fight to go away. I want my boyfriend back. He said he did this cop job for us, but it doesn't feel that way. Things were better before he was a cop."

Later that day, Jonny came over to Spencer's house when she went back home.

"Hey, are you moping around like you were the other day?" Jonny teased. "Because I could really use some company.

"No," she said with a quiet laugh. "I just got back from my friend's house. The fight with my boyfriend hasn't gotten any worse."

"Can I be honest with you?" Jonny said, glancing at her chocolate eyes for a moment.

She bit her lip before saying, "Okay."

"Well, to be honest, what I'm thinking is that he's no good for you," Jonny confessed. "We don't know each other too damn well, but I sure as hell believe that you deserve better than that dude. No girl deserves a guy that ignores them, and never has time for them. And I know how you're going to justify it. Yeah, I don't know Toby at all, and you guys have been through hell together. But does the past really define the present? Just think about that. You shouldn't feel forced to be with him just because you have a long history with him. That's my take on it, from how it looks to me."

"Looks can be deceiving," Spencer told him, biting her lip.

"Spencer, I know you want to believe that you're doing the right thing by staying with him through this, but maybe there's a way to find out if it's truly worth it. Confront him. Find out if he cares enough to resolve these issues. If he doesn't, then I don't think it was ever worth it, and maybe it's just time to walk away already."

"I can't walk away from him," she quietly said, shaking her head. "I love him, Jonny. He's not this devil that you think he is. We're going through one rough patch. That doesn't take away from all the happy moments that he's given me. I do love him."

"Things can go from perfect to wrong quickly," Jonny reminded. "Call him. Fix this. Fix your relationship. That's what I would do."

"You're right. I don't plan on breaking up with him, but the only way I'm ever going to get him back is by calling him and making us fix it together," Spencer said with a smile. She got her phone out, and glanced at Jonny for a second. "Thank you, by the way. Your advice really does mean something to me, even if I don't take all of it. It is helpful."

"No problem," Jonny said, nodding his head with a smile back.

He cocked his head to the side as Spencer found Toby's number and called him.

PHONE CALL

_"Hello?"_

_"Hey, Toby. It's me. I think we both know that things have been rocky between us, and I want to resolve it. We need to resolve it together. I want things to work, but they're never going to unless we spend a little time together and work on fixing the issues. What do you say?"_

_"Ugh, Spence. I know, and I want to. But now isn't the time for that. I don't have time."_

_"What are you doing?"_

_"I can't talk about it. But I'm busy. I'm working, okay?"_

_"Toby, you're always working!"_

_"It's a part of the job I took."_

_"Since when did your job become everything to you?"_

_"Spencer, I can't do this right now."_

_"You're right, you can't. But it seems like you never can anymore."_

With that, she hung up the phone immediately, tossing it onto the couch. Jonny gave her an apologetic look, but all she did was turn away. How could Toby be this way? He wasn't the same guy that he was when they first started dating. He was a good guy, and he still was. But when he took that job as a police officer for the Rosewood PD, it became his priority. It was like he forgot the reason he joined in the first place, which was to protect the girl he loved.

"I don't know exactly what went down, but judging based on that phone call, it didn't go too well, did it?" Jonny said, sighing.

She gave him a look before rolling her eyes and saying, "Obviously not."

"I'm sorry," he told her. "I'm sorry I made you do that, too."

"It's not your fault. I thought he would cooperate with me," Spencer explained. "I didn't think it would end that way, and I'm sure you didn't, either."

"Are you going to break up with him?" Jonny asked, intrigued by the situation.

"Not that I know of. Not yet," Spencer responded. "Not until I know where we stand. It's clear that there are a lot of things that he and I have to talk about, but I'm not making any big decisions about our relationship just yet. I want us to work, that's all I know. I want us to be fixed."

"You can't always fix everything," Jonny reminded.

"Well, I'm counting on this one to be fixed," Spencer said. "Can we not talk about him anymore? It's making me sick. I miss him."

"I get it," Jonny said, nodding his head. "How about we go on a little trip to get your mind off of your boyfriend?"

"What kind of trip?" Spencer asked, intrigued. "Nothing too far."

"I was thinking a museum. It's only about half an hour away. It was the first place I went to when I got back from my travels," Jonny explained to her. "This places means a lot to me. It inspired me before I left, and after I came back, so maybe you can pick up some inspiration about what you want to do with your life. You don't have to go to college. I didn't."

"College has always been everything to me. I've spent my whole life working for these grades to get into college," Spencer said. "But I don't even know what I want to do with my life right now. How can I pick a college if I don't know what I want to be? My parents want me to be a lawyer, and I always thought I did, because my whole family went into majoring law, so I thought I would have to do that, too. They made me believe it's what I want to do."

"You don't _have to_ do anything," Jonny told her. "Nobody runs your life except you. Life isn't all about college. It's about becoming who you truly are, and how can you ever figure that out if you take a job you don't want? Right now, it's your chance to become one of those lucky people who get to fulfill all their dreams of a job. Figure it out, and make it happen. If you don't like law, don't take law. That's the way I look at it."

"Well, it's not the way my parents look at it," Spencer said, sighing.

"You're going to have fun today," Jonny demanded, pulling her up out of her seat, and he had a wide grin on his face. "I'll make you have fun, and I'll make you realize all the possibilities there are out there. We don't just have to go to a museum. We can do any damn thing we want."

Spencer smiled, and followed him to his van outside. She was going to let herself have a fun day, just this one time.

* * *

Aria paced around her room quickly. She had so much on her mind, and so much to worry about. First of all, Ezra was obviously pissed at her about the letter. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. Assuring him that it was just to push Jackie off of her case for Talmadge seemed like a cheap move, and she wasn't sure if he would accept that lame excuse. Second of all, she didn't even freaking _want_ to go to Talmadge! Sure, it was a decent school, but that wasn't where she wanted to go to after high school was over. She needed something, and Talmadge was her only option. She needed to get into something else, but how was she supposed to tell that to Ezra? That was her third problem. Telling Ezra that she didn't want to go to Talmadge even though she just wrote a letter about how much she regretted their relationship, only to sway Jackie into letting her get into Talmadge.

The only way she could calm Ezra down about rejecting Talmadge's offer was if she got a better offer. Something that she could slyly say, 'Oh, I wanted to go to Talmadge, but then my dream school accepted me!'. Then, maybe if she got Ezra to calm down about the letter, they could work things out, and she could happily go to a college she actually wanted to go to. The only problem with that was that she didn't get into any school except Talmadge.

She panicked when her phone buzzed. She looked over at it, and just as she thought, it was Ezra that had texted her.

_I think we need to talk urgently. Call me when you can. -Ezra_

She sighed, switching her phone off, not wanting to deal with his message at the moment. Suddenly, an idea sparked through her head. It wasn't all that brilliant of an idea, but she needed some advice. Someone to tell her how to deal with this, and there was one guy she knew that was so smart that he was getting into every damn college he applied to. She switched her phone back on, and dialed his number.

Andrew Campbell.

"Hey, Andrew," she said into the phone. "I know this is super crazy and unexpected, but I really need your help right now, so can you meet me at the Grille in fifteen to thirty minutes? It's really important."

* * *

Jason was surprised he even decided to go to the Marin house, but he did. Sighing, and mustering up all the courage he could, he knocked on the door. He was happy to know that Ashley opened it, rather than Hanna, because he didn't need another awkward encounter with her. They had already had enough for a lifetime. She looked shocked to see him, and it was so obvious why. Jason found out why in about a minute after his arrival, too.

"Hey... Ashley... Ms. Marin," he said, choking on his own words as he spoke.

"Jason. Hello. What a pleasant surprise," she said, biting her lip. "You can call me Ashley, you know."

"I didn't really know what to say after what happened," Jason confessed. "But what I do know is that we need to talk about what happened, because I can't keep myself under control. I need to know what's happening with the proposal, because Hanna told me a little bit about it. I need to know what's going on."

Right then, Ted made his way to the door.

"Hello, young man!" Ted exclaimed. "You must be one of Hanna's friends, right? I'm Ted Wilson, Ashley's boyfriend."

"Yeah, I'm just one of Hanna's friends," Jason lied, staring at the floor. "If I recall, you're Ms. Marin's fiance, right?"

Ted laughed quietly and said, "We're working on it. We'll see what happens. Ashley, Hanna isn't home, right?"

"No, I'm afraid not, so sorry, Jason," Ashley choked, biting her lip hard. "It was sweet of you to stop by, though. I'll let Hanna know you dropped over."

"Alright. Cool, thanks," Jason said, sighing as he walked out the door.

When the door was closed, Jason felt a lump grow in his throat. He came over with the intention of persuading Ashley to accept Ted's proposal, and not let their one-night-stand get in the way of her marriage, but when he saw her with the pastor, he felt himself get just a little bit more than disappointed. All he knew was that he didn't want Ashley to marry him, or to say yes to his proposal, or to be with him at all, for that matter! Jason had chased after younger women, women of his age, and even some older women, but he never thought he would be falling for the mother of his sister's friend. It felt wrong in so many ways, but so right in so many other ways.

He was going to find a way to win Ashley over. He had to.


	5. Hymnals

Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 5: Hymnals

* * *

_And we don't know what we're waiting for_  
_And we don't know the truth anymore_  
_And we can't see clearly through the fog_  
_So we end up chasing ghosts_

_Outside these walls we're criminals_  
_They chase us down, we're singing hymnals_  
_We tried so hard to cope_  
_We fell so many times, we learned to climb without a rope_

HYMNALS BY GRIZFOLK

* * *

Andrew was a little stunned when he made his way to the doorstep of the Montgomery home. He never thought he would go to her house. She was a cute, popular girl. And of course, he was sort of friends with Spencer, but he and Aria had only spoken once, when they exchanged numbers and worked on a European history project during sophomore year, and then once again during senior year when they worked on a physics project together, always by teacher-pairing force. They were supposed to meet at the Grille, but Aria had quickly changed her mind, in case Ezra was out at all. She didn't want him to see her. Not until she figured her college situation out.

"I'm a little surprised you called me over," he confessed as the door opened.

"Do I get a hello?" Aria joked.

"Hello," Andrew laughed, adjusting his glasses. "Since when did the nerd get called over to hang out with a pretty girl?"

"You're not just some nerd, okay?" Aria told him.

"Feels that way," Andrew said, raising his eyebrows. "I mean, come on! How much do you want to bet that you only invited me to meet up with you because you want something school related? People call me to the rescue for school help. To lend notes, to help tutor them... you name it, I've been used for it."

"Now you make me feel like shit for asking you to help me with my college applications," Aria said, biting her lip nervously. "If you don't want to, you can turn and walk away now. I don't want to be another person using you, if that's the way you're going to feel if I ask for your help."

He stood his ground and said, "It really is fine. But maybe, after all of this is over, you'll hopefully still treat me as a friend. That's all that I could ask for. I'd be glad to help you with your college applications, if you agree to my one term."

"Hey, that's totally easy, and not some big burden," Aria said, smiling and squeezing his arm. "Andrew, did Spencer use you?"

Andrew shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's not like we had some big hook-up. She didn't like me that way, it was obvious. She made it clear that she's with Toby, and it's staying that way. But, she still invited me over and flattered me, all so she could get my prescription pills. After she got what she wanted from me, there was no word from her. I ran out of pills to supply her with, and then she never called, texted, or invited me over again."

"I don't know why she would do something like that," Aria told him. "Well, I'm not going to be that way, I can promise you that."

"That's what I'm counting on," Andrew told her, stepping inside of her home.

* * *

"I don't know about you, but I had a lot of fun tonight, Spencer," Jonny told her, turning to face her with a big grin on his face. "It was a really good day for me. I don't think I've had this much fun since my travels. Now I finally feel that feeling of having fun again. You're a lot of fun to be around, you know that?"

She blushed and said, "Don't even second guess it. I had a lot of fun, too, no doubt about it."

"Good to hear that you weren't bored to death," Jonny said with a quiet laugh.

"Are you serious?" she laughed back, shaking her head slightly. "You saw the way I reacted to everything we did. I was having fun, I promise. In fact, I haven't had that much fun in forever. This whole drama thing started a couple of years ago, and I haven't had a free moment to have so much fun in forever. It's been constant investigating all the time. Even with my boyfriend. We had some good moments, but we'd keep playing detective all the time."

"That sounds a little sucky, to be honest," Jonny confessed. "But you deserved to have a good time tonight, and hopefully you'll let me show you another good time some time soon, because I'd like to do that again, for sure."

"So would I," Spencer agreed, smiling back at him. "Thanks for taking me out, and thanks for driving me home, too. But I forgot that your home is technically my home temporarily, too."

"No problem," he said, and she started to walk towards the door of her house. "Spencer! If you're ever bored, just give me a call. Or knock on the door of the barn, either way, it's only a second away, and we can have a good time."

"Of course," she said, nodding her head, and furthered towards the door of the house.

It was his last shot. His palms were getting sweatier, but he mustered up his courage.

"Wait!" he called. "I have plans tomorrow."

"Okay, that's all right," Spencer said, laughing. "This isn't some big commitment, Jonny. We don't have to hang out every day. If you have plans with your friends, I'm not chaining you to me. We both have our own lives, too, I get it."

"No, that's not what I meant," Jonny told her, shaking his head. "I'm not too busy for you. I have plans with my former college buddies, and we've been talking recently. I was raving about you, and they'd like to meet you, too. And I want you to come. It'll be really fun. We're going to this little pub place down street. It's a cute joint, you don't have to have any alcohol, and we can hang out again. It would be awesome if you would come."

She smiled a little before asking, "You raved about me to your friends?"

"How could I not?" Jonny said, smiling. "Their names are Nick and Augustus. They're funny guys. You might actually like them."

"Friends of yours are friends of mine," Spencer told him, half-smiling.

"So, can I expect to see you there?" Jonny asked.

"Sure. I don't think Toby will be calling any time soon for making plans, so I'm free quite often," Spencer sort-of-joked, and faked a smile. "Just check up about an hour before you're leaving to meet with your friends, and I'll start getting ready. You're only a door away, you know."

Jonny grinned and told her, "I'm really happy you're coming with me."

"And I'm really happy you invited me," Spencer said, smiling back. A real smile, not a fake one.

* * *

After the first day where Aria explained the procedure of what was going on, Andrew understood her situation. It was getting pretty late when she called him over, so he had to head home soon after, but they made plans for the next day. And the next day, Andrew returned to her house, just as they had planned. They began to look into the applications and letters sent to the colleges, to see where her errors and flaws were, and hopefully discover ways to fix those issues in time for more colleges to consider her.

"Your letters to the colleges are too forward," Andrew commented, shaking his head. "If we have a little more time, I can help edit these. Get out all the forward parts... what do you say to that, Aria?"

"I'm down!" Aria exclaimed, laughing. "Thank you for helping me, by the way."

"No problem," Andrew told her, sliding her college letter away from him. "Dinner break? I'm starving."

"I'll see what I have to eat downstairs. We'll probably have to eat quick. My parents are coming home soon," Aria said.

"Why does it matter if your parents come home?" Andrew asked. "Embarrassed of showing me?"

Aria raised her eyebrows and answered, "No... I never said anything like that, Andrew. Don't jump to conclusions like that, okay? You have to understand that I'm not embarrassed of you. I'm not ashamed of you. This isn't a secret. I want to be your friend, and I'm not using you. Stop thinking so poorly."

Andrew smiled and asked, "Why don't you let me take you out to the Brew? My treat. I heard that a former English teacher from Rosewood High made it into a totally decked out restaurant, so it's not just a little ol' quaint coffee joint anymore. There's full-on dinner there now. Let me take you out for dinner there. I'd like to check the place out, anyways. See what Mr. Fitz has done with the place."

"Oh, I don't know if that's a good idea," Aria quietly said, not wanting to have an encounter with Ezra before she was ready to explain the letter.

"You don't want to go out in public, either?" Andrew asked. "Aria, I don't know what you want me to think."

"Not like that!" Aria cried. "I'm not hiding you from the world, Andrew. It's nothing like that. What about the Grille instead?"

"So, the further the better?" Andrew asked, raising his eyebrows. "Forget me helping you. You keep telling me that you want some kind of friendship with me, but it's obvious what manipulation is happening here. You don't want anything except my help."

"That is not true!" Aria defended herself. "You know what? Fine. Let's go to the Brew. I'll prove it to you that this has nothing to do with you at all."

* * *

Jason was sitting on a bench outside of the Grille, unwrapping a sandwich he had purchased minutes ago. Around the corner of the street was Hanna, making her way to the older male. She approached him, arms crossed, clearly upset with him. He looked up, his blue eyed gaze meeting hers. Once he saw the look on her face, he looked away, immediately knowing exactly what this conversation was going to be about. Her mother.

"Nice to see you, too, Hanna," Jason sarcastically said, taking a bite of his sandwich and chewing on the bits slowly.

"My mom said you dropped by at our place last night," Hanna announced, arms still folded in anger. "Please explain."

"Well, you encouraged me to go down to your place and give her whatever shit she needs to hear, in order to accept the pastor man's proposal," Jason lied, scratching his head. "So I took those words to heart, and drove my ass down to your house. I tried to talk to her last night."

"Don't lie to me. First of all, she hasn't said yes to Ted's proposal yet," Hanna began.

"Trust me, she will. I know she wants to marry that man. If nothing's in her way, and by nothing, I mean _me_, then your precious mother will have herself a new husband in time. She and Ted are going to get married at this rate," Jason said.

"Look, I'm not stupid!" Hanna cried. "I know you didn't go down there to give your words of advice to my mother. She said that all you did was take one good look at her before running your ass off back home."

"Maybe I left because she was having dinner with Ted!" Jason snapped. "I wasn't about to interrupt her dinner with her future fiancee in order to have a chat about how she should disregard our one night stand so she can accept another man's proposal of marriage. Calm your tits, Hanna, I'll talk to her when I have time. And to be honest, I went there with the complete intention of making sure she knows damn well that she can accept his proposal. But when I saw her with that pastor man, honestly, I got jealous."

"You're jealous of my mom's boyfriend?" Hanna said, raising her eyebrows. "Well, stop! You can't date my mom."

"Since when did I need permission from a teenage girl to date a woman I want to date?" Jason asked, growing irritated.

She flipped a blonde lock of her hair and told him, "She's my mom, and she's in love with her boyfriend. Ted is a good man, and if you want to ruin that for her with your player ways, I can't let that happen. I care about her."

"Then wouldn't you want her to be happy?" Jason asked. "What if she's happy with me? Then, wouldn't you want her to be with me?"

"Shut the hell up, Jason," Hanna snapped. "Back off of her. She needs to hear you say that it's okay to marry Ted, or she'll never say yes, even though she and I both know she belongs with Ted. Everyone knows she belongs with Ted. He's her true love. I haven't seen her this happy since I was young, and she first got married to my dad. If you care about her, you'll just leave her alone!"

"I can't control how I feel about her," Jason declared. "And if she needs to hear me say she should marry Ted in order to do it, well, then I guess she's not marrying him, because I can't say that unless I really believe in it."

"Since when have you been afraid of lying?" Hanna asked, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not. I'm just determined," Jason responded with a smirk. "This time, I'm not giving up on the woman I want to chase. I let Aria go, even though I wanted to keep pining for her, but not with Ashley. I'm going to grow some balls and tell Ashley how I feel about her. Maybe I can stop her from marrying Ted. You can call me daddy, Hanna."

"I freaking hate you!" Hanna yelled, but Jason just got up and walked away.

* * *

Spencer was stirring the coffee powder into the milk, when there was a knock on her door. She gave Jonny a smile before heading to go open it. Lately, she had been spending a lot of time with Jonny. It had been fun, though. When they hung out, it was like she didn't have to worry about A, or any of those other problems. She knew she would have to deal with Hanna's suspicion, her fight with Toby, and everything else at some point, but at that moment, she was just relaxed, hanging out with a good friend. Jonny was a good friend. A fun friend, too.

When she opened the door, she was shocked to see Toby standing there. He hadn't been over to her house in forever. She swallowed hard, glancing at Jonny before turning back to face her boyfriend. He scratched his head. Even he felt like he was in uncharted territory, even though he had been to her house a million times, for a million different reasons.

"Hi," he greeted quietly.

"Toby," she acknowledged, biting her lip hard. "What are you doing here? You made it seem like you were too busy to come over during our phone call yesterday." He had an apologetic look on his face, but that wasn't making up for how she felt when she hung up on that phone.

"I know, and I'm sorry, okay?" Toby told her, sighing.

"This time, when I say it, I mean it: sorry isn't good enough," Spencer said.

"I'm trying to keep my job. I want to protect you, and if us getting in this fight is going to enable me to get the answers we need, then I would risk it. I would risk anything to keep you safe," Toby told her, gazing at her with his soft blue eyes.

She flashed back to how frightening his blue eyes looked when they were fighting outside of Ezra's Brew. It reminded her not to fall for his tricks so easily. He could scare her like hell when he was pissed off.

To break the silence, he offered, "I want to make it up to you. Let me take you out on a date. Just us again. Can you come with me tonight to Buccali's?"

"No," she answered simply, glancing over at Jonny. "I have plans with Jonny tonight. We're hanging out."

Toby felt his chest harden, and he struggled to swallow, with a lump growing in his throat. He couldn't believe he didn't realize how he had just pushed Spencer into Jonny's arms! He had to win her back. He couldn't let this happen. He needed to fight for his girl.

"Then tomorrow night," Toby suggested. "Please, Spencer. I will do anything to be there for you now."

She felt herself falling apart. She needed to hug him so tight. She needed to kiss his lips, and cuddle with him, and cry in his arms, and laugh with him, and talk about life with him, and tell him everything she could... She just wanted to be with him again. He was giving her the perfect opportunity to be with him again, and she wasn't about to miss it. So she took it.

"Alright," she agreed. "Tomorrow night."

Toby grinned, pulling her in for a long kiss. She missed the taste of his lips. Her hands cupped his cheeks as they kissed, and she had never missed his mouth more than that moment. After their lips parted ways, he pulled her in for a hug, and she smiled as her head rested against his chest for a long moment.

"I love you, Spencer," he told her, rubbing her brown locks. "Please don't ever forget that, no matter what happens. I know I'm probably going to keep being a bit distant when work starts pouring in again, but I still love you."

"I love you, too," she returned the words, hugging him back.

Jonny felt himself getting a bit jealous. He didn't know why. He didn't exactly know if he had feelings for Spencer, but he knew that he didn't like it when she was happy with her boyfriend. He felt at ease when she was fighting with him, and he could be her hero. Jonny liked it when she was happy with him. He knew it was wrong to think, but he wanted Spencer and Toby to break up. He wanted his chance with Spencer. Just one chance.

"So, are we still on for tonight, Spencer?" Jonny asked, trying to cut their meaningful hug off.

"Yeah, of course!" Spencer exclaimed, pulling back from Toby. "The plan hasn't changed. Toby and I are having dinner together tomorrow night. Tonight is only you and me, Jonny."

"Awesome," Jonny said with a grin. "I'll call Augustus and Nick. I'll let them know that you can make it."

Spencer was flattered that Jonny had been boasting about her to his friends. It made her feel special. But with Toby, she felt special again. She felt special now that he was back, and ready to confront their problems, and ready to be with her again.

* * *

"I'm afraid that Jason is going to see my mom right now!" Hanna cried. "What if he is making out with my mom? He has an influence over women. He got Aria to fall for his tricks, and that obviously explains why she was so mushy and defensive of him about a year ago. He has an effect. How many girls have I seen him with? I can't let my mom be his next victim. I can't let him take away her happiness right now. She needs to be with Ted!"

"Hanna, I know how much you care. You're an amazing person," Caleb comforted her, giving her a small hug, "but you can't solve everything."

"I have to solve this," Hanna said, shaking her head. "Caleb, you don't get it. Jason can't date my mom!"

"No one said they're dating yet, and if your mom loves Ted, then everything will work out," Caleb told her.

"Fate doesn't always work out for me," Hanna reminded him.

"We don't need fate for that. Your mother can work out her romantic issues all by herself. She doesn't need her teenage daughter meddling, and I know she would appreciate that you're looking out for her, but I doubt she would be happy that you confronted Jason about what happened between them. More than once, too!" Caleb reminded, raising his eyebrows. "You have to remember that, Hanna."

"I just want him to stay away from her. Can't he go after a woman his own age instead of my mother?" Hanna complained.

Caleb cupped her cheeks and said, "We have bigger problems right now, sweetie. Your mom's love life is the least of our big issues. Don't you remember that Tanner and the Rosewood PD are hunting your ass down? Someone's trying to make you look as guilty as hell, and we can't fix it because of Toby. If we piss Toby off, then we mess with his relationship with Spencer."

"Look, I care less about Spencer and Toby's relationship than my chances of going to jail!" Hanna yelled. "I would gladly let them break up if it meant that I can save myself from going to prison. That's the truth right there, Caleb. Toby needs to stop himself. He doesn't own any of us. He's been a police officer for about three seconds, and now he suddenly owns Spencer and the rest of us? He can't do this."

"Hanna," Caleb warned. "We're not just breaking Toby's rules, we're breaking the law. We need to stop your framing in a legal way. The more illegal stuff we do to clear your name, the easier it's going to be for Alison's A minions to ruin your life."

"I know," Hanna said, sighing.

Caleb kissed her cheek and pressed his thumbs on her cheek before saying, "We're going to do all we can to save you, I promise. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. I won't now, and I won't ever."

* * *

Aria felt uneasy when she walked into the Brew with Andrew. Immediately, she saw Emily working at the counter.

"Sorry I pressured you to come with me," Andrew told her. "I was just was paranoid that maybe you only wanted to work with me for my help. I sort of wanted... wanted to go out as friends. I'm sorry, it was sort of stupid."

Aria put her hand on his arm with a smile and told him, "It wasn't stupid. All you had to do was ask, but it wasn't stupid. I'm fine with being here. I'm sorry about getting frustrated. It's just that, my boyfriend is going to be here, and we're in a fight, so I wasn't looking forward to running into him here. I wanted to avoid seeing him. It made it easier for me to just run away from my problems."

"Aria, if I've learned anything in life, it's that there's no running away from problems. No matter how far you run away, your problems are going to follow you. The only thing you can do is face these problems," Andrew advised. "But if you want to leave, we can go somewhere else. I'm sorry I pressured you into coming here, instead of anywhere else. I didn't know that you seriously didn't want to see him."

"Hey, it's not your fault. I didn't tell you, so you would have no clue," Aria reminded. "And no, I think I'm going to take your advice on this one. I might just have to face the problem. I'm going to see if I can find my boyfriend. Why don't you get us a table, and I'll go order, and look for him, too? What do you want me to get you?"

"A decaf chai latte would be nice," Andrew said with a smile, grabbing a bill out of his wallet. "It's on me, Aria. I told you it was my treat. Get yourself whatever you want, and don't worry about paying me back."

Aria accepted the money, but was surprised about how generous he was being. She made her way to the front counter, where Emily was working.

"Em, hey," she greeted, biting her lip.

"Aria, what are you doing here with Andrew?" Emily asked. "Ezra's been looking for you all day. He said you've been avoiding his texts and calls. Is that true? He really wants to confront you and talk to you about it."

"I know. I was afraid of what I might hear, and coming to terms about how I feel about the letter," Aria confessed. "Emily, do you know where he is? I just want to get this over with. And I'm here with Andrew because he's helping me with college. Talmadge isn't what I want. We're working on fixing things. And who better than _the_ Andrew Campbell, right? Plus, he's a really sweet guy."

"Ezra's in the back room. But since there's no line, I need some help about my own love life," Emily told her, pulling out her cell phone. She opened to Paige's social networking page, where there was a photo of Paige and some hot blonde girl, kissing her on the cheek. "So, Paige can take this photo with some new girl, but she can't respond to my calls or texts. And I don't know what to do about it."

"If Paige is moving on, then maybe you need to try to do the same, too," Aria advised. "That's all I can say about it. It's a small bit bitchy of her to post that without answering you. Actually, it's a big damn bit bitchy! She shouldn't have."

"But she did. So what do I do?" Emily asked.

"If she doesn't want to respond, there's nothing you can do about it. Send her a confronting text, and then try and move on with your own life," Aria told her with a grin. "Have you spotted any new offers around?"

"The other day, I was telling you about how my co-worker Talia has been flirting with me, and the signals were growing stronger," Emily reminded. "I knew I wasn't being insane, because Talia asked me out, Aria!"

"_Talia_ asked you out?" Aria asked, grinning. "Emily, that's amazing. I think you should accept her offer. All you can do right now is try and move on from Paige, only if you're ready to start trying again, and to start dating again. Besides, I think Talia's a really good catch. She's beautiful. And quite the talented chef! If you like her back, even a little bit, maybe it's time to give something new a go. Try something new."

Emily smiled to herself, glancing into the kitchen, where Talia was working, and looking as gorgeous as ever.

"Yeah, maybe I will," Emily said, nodding her head with a smile. "When I'm done working for the day, I'm telling Talia that I'd be glad to go out with her, any time that she's free."

Aria ordered her drinks from Emily, and started to walk back to the table where Andrew was sitting. She sat down, smiling as she handed him his chai latte. Then, she glanced over and saw Ezra exiting the back room. He glanced at her for a long moment, before calling her over.

"I spot my boyfriend," Aria confessed to Andrew.

"Go. Be brave. Face your problems," Andrew said with a grin.

Aria set her coffee down, got up from her seat, and made her way to Ezra. He folded his arms.

"Why haven't I gotten a response from you?" Ezra asked.

"I was afraid," Aria responded.

"But you came here with your little friend," Ezra said, nodding his head. "I get it. You're trying to spend more time with your school friends. You're trying to cram that part of the high school experience that you missed when you got involved with a teacher."

"Ezra!" she said, rolling her eyes. "I did what I had to do. I needed to get into some college, and I thought that was the only way to get into Talmadge... by convincing Jackie that I regretted you. I thought, maybe that would please her. But none of it was true, I swear! Not a thing I wrote was the truth. You know I don't feel that way about our relationship, or I wouldn't be standing here right now."

"Even if it isn't all the truth, I'm a writer, too, Aria," Ezra reminded her. "A writer can tell when another writer is writing with true emotions and feelings, and that's what I was detecting when I read your letter to Talmadge. Those emotions couldn't have come from a blank nowhere. I know something inspired that, and what inspired that was how you feel about our relationship, somewhere inside of you. At least a little part of you believes it, I can tell."

"Would I have liked to have experienced high school a little more? Sure," Aria said, shrugging it off. "But every moment with you was real to me. Every moment with you was worth it, and I wouldn't give it back for a silly high school experience. I had the real deal. I had true love. I have true love."

"There's a few months until you graduate," Ezra said, sighing. "And you deserve a high school experience. As much as there is left to have. You don't need a regretful relationship. I don't want to be the one to hold you back, and I'm not saying this in any way to teach you a lesson, or to show you who's in charge. I'm saying this because I love you a lot. I don't want you to look back when you're older and say, 'Yeah, I missed out on all of high school because I dated a teacher'. I know there isn't much time left, but I want you to have every second of that. I can't take away anymore of your time, or I don't think I'll ever forgive myself. Experience the world. Experience high school. Enjoy every last moment you have with them. I can't be the one who ruined your high school experience, I just can't. I love you too much for that. I love you, Aria. And that's why I'm breaking up with you right now. Because I love you enough to set you free. To set you free so that I don't hold you back in the time you have left."

Aria felt a tear escape from her eye, and she grabbed Ezra's hands before pleading, "Don't! Ezra, come on. This letter... it was a freaking mistake. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have never written it. Screw Talmadge, I don't even want to go there. You're not a regret to me. I love you so much. You don't have to feel as if you're holding me back, because I would rather spend every second with you, than with any of these other people."

"You're only saying that because you haven't experienced the rest," Ezra said, sighing and shaking his head. "I took that time away from you, Aria. Once you see what everything else is like, you'll realize that it was better than a relationship with me. You'll wish you could have all that time you wasted with me back. You'll see how true that letter was to you, you just don't see it now. But you will, in time."

"No, I won't," Aria told him, yanking his arm. "I don't want to be with anybody except you, why don't you understand that?"

"I'm not going to be the one that's holding you back!" Ezra yelled. "How many god damn times can I say it? I love you too much for that, I'm so sorry. Think about it. Think about all that you've done during high school. Ran away from A and their tormenting, and then spent all your time with me. You haven't had any time for clubs, teams, life, and experiences that you can't get anywhere else. People don't understand how much high school and college shape them. I can't let either of those experiences be ruined. Go live your life. Experience everything there is. Right now, go be with your friend over there. This started out as an angry confrontation, but now I know that I was the one who was wrong all along. I'm the one to be mad at. This is my fault."

Aria gave him a long hug and whispered, "Goodbye, Ezra. I love you."

* * *

Jason knew that his time was running out. Hanna didn't believe that her mother would take her time before agreeing to Ted's proposal, but Jason knew what was happening. And he had a gut feeling that today was the day that she would accept his proposal. He couldn't let it happen, though. And he would do the only thing that he knew had a chance of stopping it. Even though it was scary, and it was the one thing Jason DiLaurentis was more afraid of than anything... he would have to take a chance. Come to terms with his feelings, and say them out loud.

That's right. Jason was going to confront Ashley with his feelings. He drove his car as quickly as was legal to the Marin house. If he was lucky, Hanna would be out, hopefully far off at Caleb's apartment. All he needed was ten minutes with Ashley, maybe even a good damn five. Maybe even one! He just needed to say how he felt, and hope that Ashley's mind would change about saying yes. He parked his car quickly, and then sprinted to the door. He had a feeling that he was running out of time. A god damn gut instinct.

He knocked on the door rapidly. Ashley made her way, opening it. She half smiled when she saw Jason standing there.

"Jason," she mumbled.

"Ashley, I have something to say to you. Is Ted here?" he asked.

"No..." Ashley said, raising her eyebrows. "Jason, are you sure this is something you want to do right now?"

"As long as Ted and Hanna aren't here, then yes," Jason said. He sighed and swallowed hard before confessing, "I've felt lonely all of my life. I was the outsider. And then I thought my sister died. And a series of crazy events happened. I was in love with Aria for so long, but I was stupid, and I let her walk away from me. I let that go. I was so close to getting her. We were having this thing, but I was stupid, and she left. I've lost so many people that I have wanted to be with. And then you came along. So I'm not about to lose someone again. I care about you. And I don't know how you feel, but when we hooked up, it wasn't stupid to me. It was meaningful to me. And I'm just here to beg to you, don't marry Ted. I don't know how this is going to work with your daughter, and Ted around, but I'm willing to try. I've never been more willing to try. I'll do anything I can. Whatever I can! To make you change your mind..."

Ashley was trembling when she said, "Jason, I can't. You can't be doing this!"

"I know it's crazy, Ashley. But I did it. I've finally come to terms with my feelings. I've been so afraid of expressing my feelings to people I care about, but I finally accomplished myself," Jason said, proud. He took her hands and told her, "I will fight hard for you. I want to be with you, Ashley."

Ashley shook her head, pulling her hands back and saying, "No, it won't work. There may have been some unresolved feelings between us, but we can't happen! Whether or not Hanna is involved in this, I still love Ted. And I just got off of the phone with him a minute before you got here. I accepted Ted's proposal. I'm getting married to him soon."

And with that, Jason's heart dropped. He finally came to terms with how he felt, and got his heart broken. That was exactly what he was fearing when he decided to express his feelings to someone. He feared being heartbroken.


End file.
